NO committee hearings can be held while senators scrutinize and debate on the proposed P6.352 trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA), or the national budget for next year, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said yesterday.
Escudero said their Rules disallow all committees from conducting hearings during the annual plenary budget deliberations so senators can concentrate on reviewing Malacañang’s funding request.
“Sang-ayon sa aming Rules, maliban na lang kung payagan ng plenaryo o ng presiding officer, bawal mag-conduct ng committee hearings habang may plenary session (Under our Rules, committees are prohibited from conducting hearings while there are plenary sessions, unless otherwise allowed by the plenary or the presiding officer),” Escudero said in an interview with dzBB radio.
Escudero said senators will start holding Monday to Thursday plenary sessions, instead of the normal session days of Mondays to Wednesdays, after Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, sponsors the proposed 2025 GAA in plenary, which is scheduled tomorrow.
The Senate and the House of Representatives are set to resume regular sessions today after it went on recess last September 26.
Escudero said that based on the Senate’s timeline, plenary discussions on the proposed national budget for next year is scheduled to start on Wednesday, November 6.
He said the plenary discussions on the budget measure is expected to last for two to three weeks.
Senators are eyeing to approve its version of the 2025 national budget by the first week of December, so the bicameral committee can reconcile differences in the Senate and House versions of the proposed GAA by the second week and transmit the final and ratified version to President Marcos Jr. by the third week of December, or before Congress goes on break for the holidays.
House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe said they are expecting the Senate to pass the budget proposal soon to allow both chambers to come up with the final version of the bill, which is the most important piece of legislation passed by Congress annually.
“We hope to ratify the bicam report before our December 20 Christmas break. There is enough time to approve the final version of the budget,” Dalipe said, assuring the public that the President will be able to sign the budget into law before the end of the year.
Like in the previous years, Dalipe said the spending program for 2025 will be in place before the current fiscal year is over “to ensure continuity of spending and seamless implementation of activities and programs.”
BARMM POLLS
Escudero said he will seek an exemption from the prohibition to hold committee hearings during the budget deliberations to allow “one or two” panels to tackle the resolution that he will file today proposing the postponement of the 2025 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region.
“Tingin ko may i-e-exempt kaming isa o dalawa dahil may hinahabol kami – Bangsamoro election postponement, baka kailangan habulin ‘yun (I think we may have to exempt one or two [committees] because we might need to pass a measure which seeks to postpone the Bagsamoro elections),” he said.
He added: “Baka kailangan mag-hearing ng Huwebes. Importanteng magawa ‘yan para mabigyan na ng notipikasyon ang ating mga kababayan doon sa BARMM kaugnay ng balakin ng Kongreso na ipagpaliban ang elections at ang pangunahing dahilan ay ang desisyon ng Korte Suprema kaugnay sa lalawigan ng Sulu (We might have a hearing on Thursday. It is important that we tackle and approve this so we can already notify our countrymen in BARMM [Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao] about our plan to postpone the elections, with the recent Supreme Court decision on the province of Sulu as the primary reason for the deferment),” he said.
The SC declared last September that the province of Sulu is not part of the BARMM after the province rejected the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in a plebiscite held in 2019. The BOL is the legal framework that established BARMM’s governance and political structure.
Escudero said that he has information that Malacañang may ask Congress for the immediate passage of the measure.
He said among the BARMM issues that need to be resolved is how to “allocate” the seven or eight representatives of Sulu in the BARMM Parliament, and what will happen to the “18 or 24 barangays” in North Cotabato which voted in favor of the BARMM.
He noted that under the present set-up, the North Cotabato barangays do not belong to any municipality, province or congressional district but are part of the BARMM.
“So, panahon na rin siguro para sagutin natin ‘yung tunay na kalagayan at sitwasyon nung mga barangay na ito dahil essentially na-di-disenfranchise sila pagdating sa pagboto sa miyembro ng Kongreso
(This is also the right time to address the true situation of these barangays because they are essentially being disenfranchised when it comes to voting for their representatives in Congress),” he said.
2025 BUDGET
Escudero said the Senate will scrutinize the proposed budget allocations for the flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) amid the massive floodings in various areas of the country due to recent typhoons.
He said they will also grill the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC) on what they are doing about on climate change and climate adaptation.
“So, bahagi ng pagbusisi hindi lamang flood control ng DPWH, pero pati na rin yung programa, kaalaman, at research ng DENR (We will scrutinize not on the flood control projects of the DPWH, but DENR’s programs, knowledge, and research),” he said.
He said the 2025 national budget should be “climate adapted and climate resilient” in the aftermath of the massive destruction and loss of lives due to tropical storm “Kristine.”
He said that while it is easy to point fingers at agencies or individuals who should be held responsible for the massive destruction and loss of lives, it is more productive to prepare for future weather disturbances of similar or even greater magnitude.
He said there is a need to thoroughly study the design and build of flood control projects such as seawalls and river control systems since they have remained unchanged for decades now, adding that many of them are no longer suitable under the current conditions.
Another equally important issue that senators will scrutinize, according to Escudero, is the controversial transfer of excess funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the government coffers, saying the state insurer declared an excess fund of P89.9 billion when a big number of Filipinos do not benefit from the government’s health care system.
He said the recent SC issuance of a temporary restraining order barring PhilHealth from transferring the remaining P29.9 billion is only “temporary” since the High Tribunal has yet to make a final decision on the matter.
On the matter of the proposed 2025 funding for the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Escudero said he will let Poe decide on what to do with the more than P2 billion budget requested by Vice President Sara Duterte.
In its version of the 2025 budget measure, the House slashed the OVP budget by P1.3 billion after the Vice President refused to attend committee and plenary budget discussions on her office’s funding request.
House lawmakers said they cut the OVP budget because its socio-economic programs are mere duplications of programs of other executive offices, particularly the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Health.
The OVP had justified the need to have its own socio-economic programs by saying that its referrals for assistance to the DSWD have been rejected supposedly due to politics.
Escudero said he wants to clarify the matter with the OVP.
“Ang tanong kailan? Ngayong taon may budget sila para diyan so hindi nila kailangan i-refer sa DSWD, kaya nilang magbigay dahil may pondo nga sila, di ba? (The question is when [did the rejections happen]? Because this year, the OVP has a budget for that [socio-economic programs] so they do not need to refer anyone to the DSWD, the OVP can provide for that because it has funds for that this year),” he said.
He said the Senate can “suspend” its rules during budget debates so Duterte herself can answer the queries senators may have when the OVP budget will be tackled on the floor.
Escudero said they will also question the budget utilization of several agencies whose disbursement rates are only between 40 to 50 percent of their respective budgets.
OVERSIGHT POWERS
Dalipe said the House will continue to exercise its oversight power through its various committees, especially the quad committee and the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, because “we remain steadfast in protecting our people from abuses and in exposing acts of wrongdoing in government.”
He said five House committees are also set to inquire into the smuggling and price manipulation of basic goods to protect the public from unreasonable price increases.
Dalipe said the quad committee, which is led by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, is set to hold additional hearings on the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs and the extrajudicial killings under it and Philippine offshore and gaming operators (POGOs) and the criminal activities tied to it.
The joint panel is scheduled to conduct its 10th hearing on Thursday as lawmakers anticipate the attendance of former President Rodrigo Duterte in the hearing.
Dalipe said the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua will also resume its inquiry into the unexplained confidential funds of the Vice President in both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd), which she used to head as concurrent secretary.
The Majority Leader said that in addition to the proposed 2025 national budget, the House will also continue working for the passage of the remaining measures in the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) priority list: the Budget Modernization Bill, National Defense Bill, amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law, and amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease.
The House has already approved on third and final reading 26 of the 28 bills in the LEDAC list targeted for approval by the end of the term of the current 19th Congress on June 30, 2025.
The remaining two LEDAC measures set for approval are Amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law and Amendments to the Foreign Investors Long-Term Lease.
Since the start of the 19th Congress up to the last recess, or a total of 166 session days, Dalipe noted that the House has processed 4,504 measures or an average of 27 per day. Of those measures, 103 have been enacted into law. – With Wendell Vigilia
